On 9 June 2026, NASA introduced the four-person crew of Artemis III at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Under the program’s revised plan, Artemis III is no longer the lunar-landing flight — it is a crewed Earth-orbit shakedown to rendezvous and dock with the two Human Landing System vehicles, SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon — proving the landers and spacesuits before astronauts descend to the surface.
The first crewed lunar landing since Apollo now moves to Artemis IV, targeted for 2028.
Artemis III was first conceived as the program’s return to the lunar surface. In early 2026 NASA restructured the campaign: Artemis III now flies a four-person crew on the Space Launch System and Orion into Earth orbit to rendezvous with the two commercially built Human Landing Systems and verify they can dock and support a crew in space.
Clearing those milestones is the gate the program must pass before astronauts ride a lander down — a step that now falls to Artemis IV in 2028, which is slated to be the first crewed landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.
A crewed lunar variant of SpaceX’s Starship. The crew will rendezvous and dock Orion with Starship to verify the vehicle and its life-support and crew interfaces.
Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander. Orion will dock with Blue Moon to check out its systems — the second of the two landers proved on this flight.
Because each lander launches independently on its own rocket, Artemis III requires NASA to coordinate multiple launches in close sequence. Over a roughly two-week mission the crew will dock with one or both vehicles and confirm they perform as designed — the last major checkout before a crewed descent to the Moon.